WHITTIER – A Norwalk man who ran over another man whose car he hit will be serving seven years in prison for fleeing the scene.

Derek Wallace, 25, pleaded no contest on Tuesday to one felony count of leaving the scene of a May 13 accident and was sentenced the same day, according to Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

In exchange for the plea, the prosecution dismissed charges of assault with a deadly weapon and driving with a suspended license.

His sentencing was held at Norwalk Superior Court.

Deputy District Attorney Miriam Kang said the victim, Andrew Meza of Whittier, is able to walk.

“He was in a wheelchair for a couple of months,” she said.

Wallace’s lawyer, Gabriel Dorman, declined comment on the case.

Part of the incident was caught on tape by a television news crew. They were on Lockheed Avenue and Whittier Boulevard reporting on the shooting of a Los Angeles police officer that happened earlier at the same intersection.

A van driven by Wallace sideswiped Meza’s car, which was parked on the street. The van kept going.

Deputies said Meza and his girlfriend chased the van. He was on foot while she drove.

At Lockheed Avenue and Whittier Boulevard, Meza tried to grab onto the van, lost his grip and fell. He was run over.

Meza’s girlfriend continued the chase and struck the van with her car. Wallace fled when the van crashed into a fence but ran into a group of gang deputies at a nearby park.

The officers were there because a gang member shot at an LAPD SWAT officer nine hours before. The officer wasn’t hit.

Kang said the sentencing range for leaving the scene of an accident is 16 months to three years. Because Wallace already has one strike, a robbery conviction, she said the sentence was doubled.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.